There is apparently much confusion about how egg donors are selected, and what they go through once they are selected.

The egg donor screening process

You do not have to have a perfect family medical history with no illnesses at all in order to be accepted (that itself would arouse suspicion). You do have to be in excellent physical and mental health (free of genetic disease, not a smoker or drug user), and a normal body mass index (we use 27 as the BMI cut off). Egg donor agency directors review hundreds of applications and know how to sift out the promising applications from the not-so-promising. Much depends on individual judgment and the needs of the particular egg donation agency or clinic. A woman may be perfectly healthy and fertile but we may pass her by because we do not think we have a good match for her.

But the questionnaire is just the first step. We conduct interviews, take pictures, collect photo IDs and transcripts, run criminal background checks, do Google searches, etc. Once a candidate is selected by a recipient, the medical screening begins. She has blood drawn to test for medical and infectious diseases, has a drug screen, takes a written psychological exam, talks with a psychologist, and has a genetic consult. Any drug use, mental instability, infectious or genetic disease (even if she is only a carrier) would be revealed here. Maybe 2% of the general egg donor applicant pool make it to this stage.

The egg donation process

There are about 100,000 IVF cycles in the US every year (with women attempting to get pregnant using their own eggs) and about 10,000 egg donor cycles; with the exception of the embryo transfer at the very end, the process is exactly the same. So the procedure itself is no longer controversial and relatively routine, but not without any risk at all. Donors are well informed of the risks ahead of time, and most have no complications. Egg donation does not deplete a woman’s ovarian reserve, and does not render a woman infertile (geez, if it did, who would do it?).

Fresh donor egg transfers have a higher live birth rate than regular IVF cycles, so it is a very effective treatment for infertility. The egg donors I work with every day are warm, caring, honest women who want to help others, not con artists. The more you know about egg donation, the less shady it becomes.

The International Program offers one-stop customized assistance, including:

• access to our exclusive database of highly desirable egg donors
• matching service with our pool of carefully selected gestational carriers (surrogate mothers)
• help with finding and registering at the appropriate IVF clinic
• legal referrals
• travel assistance
• complete support in all other aspects of the complicated egg donation process

These services are often restricted or nonexistent in other countries; furthermore, the United States offers state of the art medical care.

Read about NAFG’s International Program in English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German; our press release announcement of this new branch of our egg donation and surrogacy program is also available in these languages.

Click here for more info.  (The symposium can always be viewed live via web.)

Here’s the shocker: people are willing to pay more for highly desirable egg donors! This is hardly news, although it is reported as such.

These outrageous offers get publicity, but they are far from the mainstream, and in fact, probably bogus. For many recipients, compensation within the ethical limits can be a hardship.

Any SART and ASRM registered clinic pledges to abide by the guidelines of these organizations. If a clinic works with an agency donor, the clinic should make sure that the agency complies with these guidelines as well. Some clinics require a letter from us testifying to our compliance. Plenty of agencies are members of SART, even though the article implies otherwise.

We believe that by expanding our pool of egg donors, gestational carriers, and clients, it will be even easier for donors, recipients, gestational carriers and intended parents to take advantage of our services.  Press releases are linked below:

• Washington, DC
• Atlanta
• Miami
• Dallas

“Our new locations will offer the opportunity for our egg donors, gestational carriers, and intended parents to work locally, or take advantage of our recruitment efforts in other cities across the country. This makes NAFG unique among surrogacy and egg donation programs.”  – Sanford Benardo, Founder and President, Northeast Assisted Fertility Group

“I can get up to 100 applications a week.  Some don’t follow through when they see the screening they have to go through. Some are out of our age range [of 21 to 29 years old]. I even once got an application from a man. We also have a body-mass index qualification and an educational level qualification.”

Click here to read the article.

The full text of the resolution and public statement can be found on the NYSTEM website, “ESSCB Statement on the Compensation of Oocyte Donors” (New York State Stem Cell Science).

We will continue to post on this issue as we learn more.

We just added “Photo Submission Guidelines” to our Information for Egg Donors and Egg Donor Application pages so donors can have a better understanding of how the photos should look.

Photos are required to post on your profile for recipients to view. Photos are essential to attracting prospective recipients to your profile. Recipients use photos to evaluate the donor’s resemblance to them, the donor’s attractiveness, and the donor’s demeanor, temperament, “vibe,” “energy,” or whatever you want to call it. So three important qualities are required of every photo: it needs to be clear, flattering, and show you with a pleasing expression.

I can’t tell you how many photos I receive that show candidates carousing in a dark bar (with a beer in her hand!) among a crowd of people, taken on a cellphone with an unflattering view up the nostrils and out of focus, in a ski suit and goggles or Halloween costume that conceal all her features, taken inside a dark, messy room with a flash that makes the eyes red and the complexion washed out, taken so close-up it’s scary, showing the donor with a funny face, a scowl, or her tongue sticking out, taken when she’s just rolled out of bed and her hair’s a mess and she looks half asleep, cropped out of a group shot with a resolution so low you can barely see a thing: the list goes on and on. Photos like these will never attract recipients to your profile, no matter how pretty and smart you are.

What we are looking for is not so difficult to provide. Both headshots and full body shots should show you alone in natural light. The resolution should be high; each shot should be well lit and in focus. The backdrops should be pleasant and not distracting. Expressions should be smiling and pleasant. Amateur photos are fine as long as they meet these criteria. Have a friend take some for you if necessary.

Egg donor photos are not so different from dating service photos: they serve to attract a match.

Date: Saturday, February 7
Time: 7:30AM

We will post more details as they become available.  Click here for CBS’ official page for The Early Show.

“If you’re motivated you can do a wonderful thing and help somebody and help yourself at the same time, but do not think that this is a way to walk into $10,000 and pick up your check,” said Northeast Assisted Fertility’s Sanford Bernardo.

“In fact, the payment is not for your eggs. You’re not selling eggs. It’s for the time and suffering involved.”

Click here to see the video.